Parents Long handstands.....

[Committed]

How the heck do you do them? Is it really a practice, practice, practice thing?
I am so jealous of people who have a natural "sturdiness"!

My poor DD has acquired my terrible center of balance. I did dance for years, and still couldn't pull out anything bigger than a triple turn.

 

[LIGYMMOM]

Yup, the more they do them, the longer they can hold them! I think it also has to do with core strength. Before you know it, they're walking on their hands and doing pirouettes!

 

[Iwannabemargo]

its all about using the tummy muscles, a good core will help

 

[wallinbl]

Squeeze the tummy and butt. Reach toes towards the ceiling. (I may be making all that up, but as an old fart who could never do them until DD started gymnastics, that has gotten me to about 10 seconds or so).

 

[Deleted member D3987]

hahahahahahaha ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

[Kiwi]

A triple turn sounds awesome to me! Handstands are something I've struggled with, and my DD does as well. What helps me - push shoulders up to ears, reach forward not down, use the push leg more than the kick leg, get forward on your hands, i.e. weight towards fingers, not heels of hands, push with fingers to prevent overbalancing. (And of course squeezing tummy and butt). I can't do 10 seconds yet, about 6 seconds is quite good for me. People who can stay up forever amaze me.

 

[Committed]

Wow! I can do 2 seconds!! I really want to show DD up! We're head to head on beam cartwheel accuracy.

 

[Flossyduck]

dd has never found straight handstands easy. She's tight as a drum for bar skills, tumbling etc. coach says her core is good, she has a six pack you could great cheese on and muscles in her shoulders and arms so sculptural I try and photograph them.

She can hold split handstands, she can change leg splits really slowly, she can straddle up and pike up and she can do a full turn. Holding a straight handstand... not so good. Not bad compared to the rest of the population of course, but compared to some of the girls in the group - nah! Never going to win the handstand competition!

She has long arms, I don't know if that's a disadvantage. And she has a naturally hollow back. They spend a lot of time on handstand shaping drills, but I don't think she's ever going to look 'sturdy'. She always looks as though she's fighting to stay there

 

[iwannacoach]

It's really hard to last long in an upside down balancing position when you're coming from a right side up mentality and are using right side up references to maintain balance, like sticking your head out in a failed effort to keep part of your body close to right side up to maintain your balance.

So how to do them is like this.........

Use the same posture to go upside down as you would use to walk on the balance beam. The exception would be that your head *could be* tilted just enough to let your see the floor between your hands.

Stay tight in your core to hold your body in the correct posture as if you were a solid statue, rather than a toy action figure.

Realize there's nothing you can do to help move toward inverted once you've pushed off with your foot. So push off and maintain your posture, and let it get you were it gets you. Adjust your effort from there and see how it goes.

Learn how to use your fingers and heel of your hand to maintain your handstand balance.

So now that you know the essence of the skill, I thoroughly expect to hear about wondrous gains on the skill. I'll give you a week, so get busy.

 

[Clover]

I remember when my DD starting competitive gym 4 years ago I looked at the TOPS testing criteria. Holding a 30 or 60 second handstand seemed impossible. Now my DD can hold a handstand on beam for 60 seconds. You'd be surprised at how much better they get at this with Lots of practice. When your DD starts getting a bit better at holding it she can walk around on her hands. That makes it a bit more fun and is good practice as well.

 

[Coach2400]

In the beginning correct handstands take longer to learn but beat out the cheater handstands that took less time to learn. Maybe your DD is going for getting it right the first time! Patience is key.